Africa: Following Oil Boom, Biofuel Eyed on Continent

While oil profits have flooded into countries such as Angola and Nigeria in recent decades, some African observers see new potential for the continent in the form of increasingly in-demand biofuels.

Biofuels, loosely defined as liquid or gas fuels derived from biomass, produce significantly less ozone-damaging carbon emissions than fossil fuels such as coal and petroleum. A large swath of southern Africa, including Angola, Mozambique and South Africa, is proving fertile ground for those seeking an alternative to fossil fuels.
It is a development that has not escaped the notice of Europe.

In a 2006 Green Paper ‘A European Strategy for Sustainable, Competitive and Secure Energy’, the European Union (EU) affirmed that “the new EU-Africa strategy, envisaging interconnections of energy systems as a priority area, could also help Europe to diversify its oil and gas supply sources.” The paper went on to stress Europe’s need to diversify its energy resources.

“There is a potential market in Europe in this regard,” says Teodsio Bule, a policy officer with the Secretariado Tecnico de Segurana Alimentar e Nutricional (SETSAN, Poverty, Food Security and Nutrition Secretariat) based in Maputo in Mozambique.

“Africa is close to the EU, and the EU is willing to have more biofuel on its continent. As Africa appears as one of the most likely suppliers of biofuel, we want to take advantage of this,” he told IPS.

Over a quarter of the investments of the European Union’s financing institution, the European Investment Bank (EIB), in sub-Saharan Africa are in the energy, oil and gas sectors, close to 600 million euros since 2000.

One card in Africa’s favour that has come to the fore in recent years, some European officials suggest, is the creation of the African Union (AU). The AU is a body of 53 African states formed in 2001 with the ostensible aim of integrating the region’s currency and its defence forces, as well as promoting human rights.

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